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Russia, which has been hit hard by the oil price collapse, was
flirting with the idea of cooperating with OPEC in recent months
until tensions between OPEC members Saudi Arabia and Iran ruined
a global deal to freeze output.
Sechin - one of the closest allies of President Vladimir Putin -
was the only Russian official to consistently oppose the deal
with OPEC even after the Kremlin effectively endorsed the plan.
Now that his gloomy predictions about talking to OPEC have come
to pass, Sechin feels vindicated and wants to help Russia avoid
similar embarrassment in future.
"At the moment a number of objective factors exclude the
possibility for any cartels to dictate their will to the market.
... As for OPEC, it has practically stopped existing as a united
organization."
"The company (Rosneft) was skeptical from the very beginning
about the possibility of reaching any sort of joint agreement
with OPEC's involvement in current conditions," said Sechin, in
comments over the weekend which were embargoed until Tuesday.
"Just to remind you, the only one question with which we
responded to those who were interested to know our position:
'Who should we agree with, and how?' The development of the
situation has clearly shown we were right."
Sechin's comments about the end of the era when OPEC could
influence prices chime with those of Saudi Arabia's newly
appointed energy minister Khaled al-Falih.
Falih, who took over on Saturday from long-serving Ali al-Naimi,
has been very vocal in the past year about his views that the
oil market needs to rebalance through low prices and that the
Saudis have the resources to wait.
Falih's ultimate boss, Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman,
who oversees Saudi oil policies, has also signaled that the
world is moving to a new era where supply and demand rather than
OPEC will determine prices.
Sechin, who was born in 1960 - the same year as Falih - is also
calling on Russia to abandon any hope that prices can be fixed
by anything other than market rebalancing.
"At the moment, key factors which are influencing the market are
finance, technology and regulation. We can see this with the
example of shale oil which ... became a powerful tool of
influence on the global market," Sechin said in the emailed
comments.
(Writing by Katya Golubkova and Dmitry Zhdannikov; Editing by
Andrew Osborn and William Hardy)
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